Posted on 04/04/2015 8:49:03 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Koral Reef, 20, died after developing a brain-eating amoeba called Balamuthia that her mother believes she contracted during a family trip to Lake Havasu
Twenty-year-old Koral Reef's life was just beginning. She said yes to the dress and married her high school sweetheart. But Reef never got the chance to enjoy her happily ever after when she developed a rare, brain-eating amoeba that took her life.
Reef’s mother, Cybil Meister, believes a family trip to Lake Havasu in Arizona was the catalyst for the infection that killed her daughter.
“She started with the headaches, the stiff neck, the sensitivity to light and heat was bad,” Meister told NBC 7.
Around Thanksgiving of 2013, Reef's family noticed something was wrong. By January, things went downhill. In June 2014, she went to the emergency room. UPDATEDPB SWAT Standoff Suspect Surrenders Doctors were never truly able to pinpoint a cause behind Reef’s health issues.
“They said, ‘Oh, she’s having withdrawal from her birth control; It’s a migraine.’ They gave her medicine and sent her home and then she progressively got worse,” recalled her mother.
6 People, Including Newborn Baby, Hurt in PB Fire In September 2014, Reef started losing her vision. "She went to Temecula Valley and they did an MRI. They showed us the MRI and the amoeba, which they didn't know was an amoeba, but there was a mass covering the entire right side of her brain and partial of her left,” explained Meister.
In October 2014, Reef died.
Doctors say she had a rare but extremely deadly amoeba called Balamuthia. Meister believes her daughter contracted the parasite on that trip to Lake Havasu.
“Balamuthia's mortality rate is very, very high. Only 13 percent of patients survive without any type of treatment,” explained Dr. Navaz Karanjia.
Dr. Karanjia is the Director of Neurocritical Care and the Neuro-ICU at UC San Diego's Health System.
She said Balamuthia is inhaled and the parasite has been found in soil and dust. The symptoms of the infection are general – such as headache, fatigue, and a stiff neck – which make it hard to diagnose. "Usually the initial tests come back negative fo r the usual bacteria and viruses so medical providers need to know if those test come back negative a parasitic infection could be present,” said Dr. Karanjia.
Reef’s mother is now devoted to raising awareness about the deadly, brain-eating amoeba in her daughter’s name. She has started #TeamKoralReef through Amoeba Awareness.
She's hoping to keep others from ex periencing the pain of losing a loved one.
"We're reaching out to people trying to raise awareness because I don't think people understand how serious it can be. It's deadly,” she added.
Dr. Karanjia said a drug has been approved for treatment of another parasite, leishmaniasis, and that drug is being tried for amoebas as well. She said it has shown some promise in treating amoebas like the one that caused Reef's untimely death.
How sad.
London Bridge
Wow I was just thinking about this the other day, in the late 1960s early 70s I was in the Boy scouts and we use to drink right from springs and streams while out camping and then we would hike up a ways and find a dead deer laying in it. Amazing we never caught anything. Or the ticks, that’s another one. Camping out in Alder lake NY and trudging through a swamp up there and being clothed in tics. “Who has the oil?” Make sure the head ain’t left behind. Now you get Lyme disease and go through hell
You see stories like this on Monsters Inside Me all the time. I can’t believe she didn’t seek medical help until June of the following year from when she started having dangerous meningetis-like symptoms. I wonder if Reef was her maiden name. Maybe she made it her mission to marry a man named Reef.
People have know about the Democratic Party for years, and nobody does anything about it. It's like the weather.
Koral Reef
Seriously?
Which, the girls death or the name her parents hung on her? RIP young woman, you hardly had time for to know the world.
Has anyone considered phage therapy? (Viruses which target the amoeba...)
It’s not a bacteria.
That’s why I don’t go swimming anymore.
Yes, I know that. Do there exist viruses which attack this organism?
Sucks, with all the waterfalls and ponds beckoning. I only swim in the ocean and take my chances with sharks.
Coral Reef. Really?
Probably. The big question is are they as specefic as bacteriophages.
Don’t know if anyone has done any research in this area.
Nice story. This past week my 4 1/2 yr old boy developed a fever and a stiff neck. It persisted for 4 days. fever spiking around between 99 and 103. The docs said the fever and the stiff neck were coincidental. I was afraid of something like in this story. Some damn thing they rarely see. Fever and stiff neck scares the hell out of me.
I've lived all over the US and spent years in Europe as a kid and traveled in North Africa and Central America where sanitation and cleanliness standards are not always up to ours here in the US. But I survived. I did get a parasite once in Mexico from drinking local water but I had it treated with medicine and it resolved itself. Otherwise, I have lived a long, healthy life not worried what germ or critter might get me around every corner.
BTW, Happy Easter everyone.
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